Poona College Centre for Environmental Education
BIODIVERSITY AND ITS CONSERVATIONS Biodiversity refers to the variety of variability among living organisms and the
The geographical distribution of plants (flora) and animals (fauna) is called
biogeography. Biogeography is divided into two parts namely phytogeography
and zoogeography.
1- Phytogeography: The science which deals with the origin, distribution and
environment interrelationships of plants is known as phytogeography.
2- Zoogeography: It deals with the geographic distribution of animals.
There are two major approaches to study the biogeography:
1- Discriptive or static biogeography which deals with the description of biota
of different and botanical and zoological areas of earth; and
2- Interpretative or dynamic biogeography which describes the forces which
have brought about plant and animal distribution.
BIODIVERSITY :
The commonly used terms biodiversities means diversity of life around us. In
the simplest sense, biodiversity, may be defined as the sum total of species
richness, i.e. the number of species of plants, animal and micro-organisms
occurring in a given habitat.
The term biodiversity is a contraction of biological diversity and used for
variety or diversity within the biological world. Hence, biodiversity is nothing
but the life on earth or the natural biological capital of the earth.
The concept of biodiversity though known to man since he started observing
living beings around him, the word abruptly became in a buzz-word especially
during the last few decades. The concept of biodiversity means the variety of
life forms in a given region, ecological roles they play and genetic diversity
they contain. The word biodiversity, only really comes into public vocabulary
around 1988.
The convention of biodiversity (CBD) signed in june 1992, by around 157
governments at the Earth Summit in Rio De Janerio, Brazil under the aegis of
united nations conference on environment and development (UNCED). The
convention laid tremendous stress on global biological diversity and
emphasized the importance of preserving it for the future generation.
The convention on biodiversity define “biological diversity” means the
variability among living organisms from all sources including inter alia,
terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystem and the ecological complexes
in which they are part; this includes diversity within species and of ecosystem.
ecosystem complexes in which they occur. It includes the diversity of forms
right from the molecular unit to the individual organism and then on to the
population, community, ecosystem, landscape and biospheric levels.
Broadly speaking, the term biodiversity includes three different but closely
related aspects namely: (1)Genetic diversity, (2)Species diversity and
(3)Ecosystem diversity.
1) GENETIC DIVERSITY (Diversity within species ):
It refers to the variation of genes within species. This constitutes distinct
population of the same species or genetic variations within population or
varieties within a species. Two individuals are even not similar. The
differences between two individuals are because of variation in genetic
material which is present in all organisms. This genetic material is passed on
from one generation to another generation. The another factor for diversities
in the individuals is due to variations caused by environmental influence on
each individual organism. Thus, impact of environment also plays important
role in variation in genetic material. Heritable variation is raw material for
both evolution and artificial selection and thus it is ultimately the basis for all
observable present day biodiversity. It is principally a function of sequence
variation in the four-base pairs making up nucleic acids including DNA, which
is the basis of genetic code in the vast majority of animals. New genetic
variations result due to gene and chromosome mutation in individuals. In
sexually reproducing organisms it spreads in the population by recombination
of genetic material during cell division preceding sexual reproduction.
2) SPECIES DIVERSITY ( Diversity between species) :
It refers to the variety of species within a region. Such diversity could be
measured on the basis of number of species in a region. Biodiversity at its
most basic levels includes the full range of species on Earth, from micro-
organisms such as viruses, bacteria and protist through the multicellular
kingdom of plant, animal and fungi. Thus, species in the basic ways the basic
currency of biological sciences and ecologist have mainly focused on species
for research. It is possible to count the number of species in a particular
region or sample site or even in a country. It is more easy to count number of
species of common animals like birds or mammals in a particular region or
area. This gives ideas of species richness in that region and ultimately the
biodiversity. This is useful to compare the biodiversity at different sites. This is
simple and straight and most useful measure of biodiversity.
 Poona College Centre for Environmental Education
Geographical conditions are also responsible for species richness For
example, the areas where warmer climatic conditions exist, species diversity
or richness is always more. On the other hand, colder conditions restrict the
species diversity. Wetter areas also show more species than dry or desert
conditions. Varied topographical and climatic conditions support more species
diversity than uniform conditions. Sometimes in a particular area the species
which are unique and not found anywhere called endemic species. For
example, islands have fever species which are unique and not found on other
regions. Therefore, islands have lower species richness but higher species
endemism.
(3) KEYSTONE SPECIES :
Within biological communities, some species may play an important role in
determining the ability of large number of other species to persist in the
community. These crucial species are known as keystone species. Keystone
species include decomposers organisms, top predators, pollinators, etc.
Therefore, conservation of such species is of great importance. If a keystone
specis is lost from the conservation area, numerous other species might be
lost as well. For example large trees greatly increase local biodiversity
because they provide range of specialists resources for other species like
nesting birds, parasites, epiphytes, fruits eating herbivores, and many other
organisms. Another example of bats or flying foxes can be cited here. There is
severe decline and extinction of many species of bat in the old world tropics
had a dramatic effect upon many important plant species in the island of tar
and Pacific and Indian Oceans. They may invite ecological disasters that could
affect human societies in these regions. These bats are pollinators and seed
dispersers for hundreds of species of tropical plant. But extinction of these
bats is thus potentially devasting for these but dependent plant species of
economic value of local and international markets. These plants include
medicinal plants, and plant yielding fibres, dyes and other important product.
Wild bananas are also bat pollinated. Thus, bat extinction may harm the
biodiversity.
ECOSYSTEM DIVERSITY
It is also called community diversity. In a ecosystem, there may exist different
landforms, each of which support different and specific vegetation. Ecosystem
diversity in contrast to genetic and specific diversity is difficult to measure.
Since the boundaries of the communities, which constitute the various sub-
ecosystem are exclusive. On a wider scale, biodiversity includes variation in
biological communities in which species live, the ecosystem in which
communities exist, and the interactions among these levels. Ecosystem or
community diversity could be best understood if one studies the communities
in various ecological niches within a given ecosystem; each community is
associated with definite species complexes. These complexes are related to
composition and structure of the biodiversity.
This is actually very ill defined term because ecosystem diversity or diversity
at community or habitat level remains problematic. This is because there is no
single way to classify ecosystems and habitat.
BIODIVERSITY AT GLOBAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVEL:
Global Level –
Questions always arises that how many species are living on our planet? It is
estimated that there exists 5-30 million species of living forms on our earth.
Out of these species only 1.5 million species have been identified. These
include 3,00,000 species of green plant and fungi, 8,00,000 species of insect
40,000 species of vertebrates and 3,60,000 species of micro-organisms.
The tropical forest are regarded as the richest in biodiversity. According to the
opinion of the scientist more than half of the species on the earth live in most
tropical forest which is only 7% of the total land surface. The insect 80% and
primates 90% make up most of the species. For example from a singe
leguminous tree 43 ant species belonging to 26 genera have been received.
This approximately equals to the ant diversity of all the british isles.
1-Bacteria =3,600
2-Blue green algae =1,700
3-Fungi =46,983
4-Bryophytes =17,000
5-Gymnosperms =750
6=Angiosperm =2,50,000
National Level –
India has over 1,15,000 species of plants and animals which are already
identified and described. In flora, the country can boast of 45,000 species
which accounts for 15% of known world plants. There are 15,000 species of
flowering plants of which 35% are endemic and located in 26 endemic
centres. There are 588 genera of monocotyledons occur in the country in
which 22 are strictly endemic
CONSERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY (Conservation methods) :
1- In situ conservation:
 Poona College Centre for Environmental Education
This method is applied for conservation of ecosystem and natural habitats, or [a] Tundra [b] Tropical rain forest
domesticated or cultivated species like crop plant, forest, and pasture species. [c] Grasslands [d] Chapparal
2- Ex-situ conservation:
9. The study of relationship between Plant organism and their
i) Establishing genetic enhancement center for the production of good quality
of seeds; environment is
ii) Enhancement in the existing zoos and botanical garden network; [a] Ecology [b] Environmentology
iii) Seed gene bank;
[c] Evolution [d] Plant geography
iv) Tissue culture gene banks;
v) Pollen and spores banks; 10. Which of the following is an endangered species in India?
vi) Captive breeding in zoological gardens and [a] Asiatic elephant [b] African rhino
vii) In-vivo and in-vitro preservation.
[c] Arabian horse [d] Australian kangaroo
11. The forest conservation act was made in
Q 1: Multiple Choice Questions [a] 1980 [b] 1992 [c] 1972 [d] 1950
12. Ms Medha Patkar, human activist is closely associated with the
1. In genetic diversity sudden change occurs in
people affected by
[a] cell [b] genes [c] organs [d] organism
[a] Chipko movement [b] Narmada valley project
2. In India_________floristic regions are found
[c] Sardar Sarovar project [d] Gujarat riots
[a] Five [b] Six [c] nine [d] ten
13. A sanctuary of great Indian Bustards is in
3. Animals which are active during night [nocturnal ]
[a] Rehekuri [b] Ramtek [c]Pal [d]Panshet
[a] Owl [b] Rat [c] Cockroach [d] All the above
14. According to IUCN red list what is the status of red panda
4. Highest biodiversity occurs in________ climate
[a] Critically endangered [b] Extinct species
[a] cold [b] moist tropical [c] dry [d] hot
[c] Vulnerable species [d] Endangered species
5. Father of Indian green revolution is
15. Endemic species are found in ___________ region
[a] M S Swaminathan [b] A B Rangarajan
[a] specific [b] all
[c] T N Sheshan [d] A P J Kalam
[c] forest [d] none of these
6. Which of the following is a mangrove tract?
[a] Sunderbans of W Bengal [b] Malabar region Answer Key:
[c] Indus plains [d]Gangetic plains
7. The major causes of loss biodiversity is 1 b 4 b 7 b 10 A 13 a
2 c 5 a 8 b 11 D 14 a
[a] Bio magnification [b] Habitat destruction 3 a 6 a 9 d 12 C 15 a
[c] Urban development [d] Intraspecific competition
8. More than half of the earth’s half of the flora and fauna are found in